Wednesday, June 30, 2010

the need for changes in the officiating process.

FIFA Needs To Catch Up To The Rest of the Sporting World

As the 2010 World Cup builds toward its finale, one fact has stood head and shoulders above the rest, in regards to the game and the way it’s played around the world: FIFA must institute some kind of goal-line technology, if not instant replay and/or referee accountability. This obviously means different things to different sports in America – challenges from a coach in football, reviewing whether a ball is fair or foul in baseball, the afore-mentioned goal-line technology in hockey, and out-of-bounds calls in basketball – and it’s hard to predict how it would ultimately occur in soccer. The need, however, is not difficult to see.

The bottom line is that, as long as the world is watching, as long as soccer is the most popular sport in the world, there will be a need for change. FIFA can start with the promised look at goal-line technology, but there needs to be more transparency in the officiating process, and some kind of checks-and-balances in place for blatant rule-breaking that isn’t seen in the first place.